POLICE HAVE NO INTENTION TO WEAKEN ANTI-GRAFT BODY?

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Oct 7 (ANTARA) - The attempt to arrest a Corruption Elimination Commission (KPK) investigator on Friday when the anti-graft body is investigating a police general over an alleged corruption has confirmed public conviction that KPK is being criminalized.          Tens of police officers came to the   KPK building on Friday night shortly after Police Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo had undergone questioning over his alleged involvement in a driving simulator corruption case.          They were trying to pick up one of the KPK investigators, namely police commissioner Novel Baswedan, who was alleged by police to have committed a criminal act that caused the loss of life of a victim in Bengkulu province in 2004.          Apart from whether or not it happens by chance, the attempt to arrest Baswedan and the withdrawal of 20 police on loan to the KPK took place at a time when the anti-graft commission was investigating Djoko Susilo, the former chief of the National Traffic Police Corps and a suspect in the alleged driving simulator corruption case.          Then it is just logical if the public discourses arise and opinions are formed that the KPK is being criminalized. This is because the police took the action when the KPK was investigating a police general.          "We hope that the people would not let themselves be carried away by the issue, thus forming public opinions and linking the attempt to arrest Baswedan with the investigation of the driving simulator corruption case," said former Jakarta police chief retired commissioner general Noegroho Djajoesman, on Saturday.          He said that the effort to arrest Baswedan was not an attempt to criminalize the KPK by the police.          "It has nothing to do with the criminalization of the KPK, regardless of whether Commissioner Novel Baswedan is a police or a civil servant," Noegroho said in press statement on Saturday.          Noegroho said that the people must wisely understand that the  the General Criminal Investigation Department of the Bengkulu Regional Police was taking a legal step to follow up an alleged criminal act committed by Commissioner Novel Baswedan back in 2004.          "We can understand if the police unit --where Baswedan used to serve in the Bengkulu Regional Police-- takes actions and follows up the legal case of its member who is alleged to have committed a crime," noted Noegroho.          Retired as a three star police general, Noegroho criticized the KPK chairman who, he said, overly defended the anti-graft institution and took a premature conclusion that Baswedan was not guilty. It is only the court that has the right to pronounce whether or not someone is guilty, he said.          According to Senior Commissioner Dedy Irianto, the head of the general criminal investigation department of the Bengkulu Rigional Police, Baswedan's case was purely a crime.          He said when he was chief of the General Criminal Investigation Unit of the Bengkulu City Police Headquarters in 2004,  Baswedan who was first inspector, shot six thieves who had stolen swallow nests.       "After being interrogated, the six suspects were taken to Bengkulu's Panjung Ujung beach and were shot there. The shooting of the victims caused eventual death of one of them," Dedy said.          However, KPK chairman Abraham Samad said on Saturday that the police accusation against  KPK investigator Baswedan  was not true. "After we examined him, we found that Baswedan did not commit a crime as the police have accused him of," asserted Abraham in Semarang, Central Java, on Saturday.          As regards, the KPK will do its best to prevent any effort to criminalize the anti-corruption body and any forceful arrest of its investigators who were investigating the alleged driving simulator corruption case.          On the occasion, Abraham hoped President Susilo Bambang Yudhoynono would interfere in settling the dispute between the KPK and the police.          "We have to set aside institutional egoism in an effort to save the nation and to fight corruption," the KPK chairman said.          He acknowledged that there were efforts being made by some to weaken the institution systematically. "Efforts to weaken KPK have been made systematically in various forms, including through terror, such as the one happening last night when several police officers tried to pick up one of the KPK investigators," he said on Saturday.          Abraham added that the KPK was besieged on Friday night when several police officers sought to forcibly remove KPK investigator police commissioner Novel Baswedan.          "The situation at KPK last night was not conducive for idealistic KPK investigators," he said.          Meanwhile, Muslim scholar Hasyim Muzadi said President Yudhoyono must interfere soon to overcome the dispute between the KPK and the National Police.          "The president should have reprimanded the Police chief. If he does not do it and continues to leave it unheeded, it means there is  something," Hasyim Muzadi  said in Semarang.          He said that the conflict between the KPK and the Police --which continued to take place and heat up-- was the consequence of the state condition which is not yet anti-corruption minded.  This could serve as a bad precedent.          "The state and government officials who actually should protect and support the KPK turned out to be disappointing," said Hasjim who is also former general chairman of the country's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).          Meanwhile, deputy minister of justice and human rights Denny Indrayana said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would make a statement with regard to the dispute between the KPK and the police.          "Perhaps he would do it in one or two days' time," he said.          The police have denied that they had criminalized KPK. "The police are one of the institutions that develop KPK. So, if we are trying to carry out law enforcement it must not be considered criminalizing," the chief of the National Police Crime Investigation Department, Commissioner General Sutarman said meanwhile.***1***    (T.A014/A/A014/S012) 07-10-2012 12:03: